90,000 beneficiaries reached in Burundi

Thare Machi Education have been working with our partners the Association for Solidarity, Health and Social Assistance (ASASS) across Burundi since 2016.
ASASS uses TME’s lessons to teach life skills and encourage behaviour change, reaching hundreds of communities through their Learn Per View and Listening program. Led by the enigmatic Jean Claude Kamwenubusa, his team have managed to show TME’s lessons to 90,000 people across 4 districts, in just two years.

TME’s lessons use simple language to explain important issues to children and vulnerable adults who wouldn’t otherwise get access to such vital information. The lessons use clear photographs, are translated into local languages (in this case, Kirundi) and feature interactive questions to ensure that viewers have understood the key points. ASASS helped to translate 32 lessons into Kirundi, and have been showing the DVDs to up to 3500 people at a time. The lessons cover a wide range of different health and social topics, including healthy eating, the importance of planting trees, safe water, HIV/AIDS, and avoiding malaria. All of the lessons help men, women and children to make positive choices and live safer lives, allowing them to break the cycle of poverty.

The project worked across 4 different provinces, Bujumbura, Bubanza, Gitega and Cibitoke of Rugombo, in both rural and urban communities. The team worked with a wide range of people, from teenagers and their parents, to unemployed young people and university students. ASASS’s work was hugely successful, not only reaching thousands of vulnerable people, but positively changing their lives for the better.

Burundi is still suffering in the wake of two civil wars and an attempted presidential coup in 2015. It is one of the world’s poorest countries, where 80% of people live in poverty and 56% of children under 5 are seriously malnourished. While Burundi has comparatively high literacy rates, the opportunity for further education is very limited, especially for girls, who are expected to marry young and are limited in their economic independence. ASASS and TME are working hard to improve the basic health of Burundians, helping them to stay in school and work, and become economically independent.

“LPVL workshop helped me and parents to learn by watching and listening to lesson in Thare Machi Educational DVDs burned in Kirundi language. We discussed, listened to each other and we communicated better. Through this session, I really did activities and I discussed issues which gave me the chance to voice my opinions and share my worry.” Participant, learning per view workshops with parents and their children.

Other ways you can support our work

Support our Work

Donate to Thare Machi Education

Our life-changing DVDs are available to all.

To enable us to continue this work, and to send free DVDs to those who cannot contribute to the costs, we need your support. There are many ways for individuals and groups to get involved, and giving money to help fund our work is just one.